Claiming The Alpha (6 page)

“Yeah. I do.” He added the onion and another layer of beef. He set the finished sandwich in front of

Nikki. “Beer?” He held the refrigerator door open, letting her look inside.

“Anything but that stuff I had last time. Little too thick for my tastes. I like to be able to see through my beer.”

Jax smiled, grabbing a bottle and opening it for her. “Guinness isn’t for everyone. You’ll like this

better.”

He sat down across from her, watching as she bit into her sandwich and then laughing as her tears

sprang to her eyes.

“Holy shit, Jax. What the hell is in this?” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Horseradish…really good horseradish. Do you like it?” He bit into his sandwich, the sharp sting

making his own eyes water.

“Yeah. I think. When I recover, I’ll let you know.” She took a long swallow of beer, setting the bottle

back on the table with a thud.

“What?” She caught his look and they laughed.

“I like a girl who enjoys her food. A two-fisted eater.” He took a swallow of his beer, the cool liquid

sliding down his throat.

They ate for a minute before Nikki broke the silence. “So…the thing. What is it?”

“I think it’s a lycanthrope.” He caught Nikki’s bemused look and went on. “Not a werewolf, although at

first glance, I guess we look the same.”

“But it was different…bigger, and it smelled.” She pushed her empty plate away.

“There’s something wrong with it…and I think I know why. I found a journal my father kept, when he

was alpha male. There’s an entry about his brother, Arden, who was bitten by a lycanthrope. Apparently the bit happened just as Arden was changing back to human form. Something happened, went wrong, and he

wasn’t able to change back.”

Nikki grimaced. “Oh, my god. That’s horrible. What happened to him?” She took a swallow of beer.

“They brought him here and my father tried to do something to help, but Arden was stuck between wolf

and human, and nothing seemed to work. Near as I can tell, being between left him weak, with almost no

regenerative powers. At the moment we change, we are completely vulnerable. It’s usually only for a

second. But Arden was stuck in that state.”

Nikki was silent, watching him with large eyes. “And then…he didn’t die?”

Jax shook his head. “No. They were going to watch him, try to figure some way of helping him, but he

disappeared. Climbed through a window. They found hair and blood on a broken glass.”

“Like at my apartment?”

“Yeah. Like that.”

Nikki’s eyes went wide. “But wait. How can it be a wolf when there’s no full moon? That doesn’t make

sense.”

Jax nodded. “Lycanthropes can change at will. They’re not bound by the cycles of the moon. If he’s

somehow become lycanthropic, he must have the ability to change at will. Or he’s not able to change at all and is always in some kind of wolf form.”

Nikki shuddered and Jax wished there was some other way she could learn all this, without having it

dumped on her, especially so soon after learning what Jax was. He watched her closely, still expecting her to throw up her hands and bolt from the room. He didn’t know many humans who would be able to hear all

this and not think he was crazy…or that they were losing their grip on their own sanity.

“But why is it at my place? What’s the attraction?” The anxiety in her voice was palpable and he wished

there was some other answer he could give her. Jax was silent, trying to find the easiest way to answer

Nikki’s question. But there was only one he had at the moment, a hunch, based on something he’d read in

the journal. It was an idea that chilled him to the bone, if he was right. It put her dead center in this whole thing.

“I think he’s taking revenge for something that happened between him and my father, a long time ago.”

“Revenge? For what?” She picked at a piece of bread crust left on her plate, fingers nervously

shredding the dark brown bread into crumbs.

“For a girl…for something that happened to Arden’s mate, or the woman he’d chosen to be his mate.”

“But why me? I don’t have anything to do with him, or the pack. And I’m not your mate, or his…I’m

not anyone’s mate.”

“No. We know that. But, right now, he doesn’t. You’re here, you’re seen with me, most of the time. I

think he assumes you’re my mate. That you’re the alpha female of what was his pack.”

“So he wants to kill me because he’s taking revenge? I’m confused.” She pushed the plate away.

Jax shrugged. “I’m not sure if he’s out to kill you or if he’s fixated on you. Or, using you to lure us out in the open, to kill us.”

Both ideas sent a fresh wave of anxiety through Jax. In either case, Nikki was in serious danger. Jax

knew he could take care of himself.

“What’s the story with the girl though, the potential mate? What happened to her?” Nikki’s body was a

study in tension. She’d pulled her knees up, arms around her legs. In classic prey mode, she’d

unconsciously made herself as small of a target as possible. And she was sitting Jax’s kitchen, where she should have felt the safest.

“Arden had a girl he wanted as his mate, a human. Somehow there was a fight between rival packs, my

father and Arden included, and she was killed, before she could be blooded into the pack. According to the journal, Arden believed my father killed her. But my father wrote that it was an accident, she was killed by the rival pack.”

“What does blooded mean?” The beer was now forgotten as well, her eyes locked on Jax.

“If a werewolf chooses a mate that’s human, and that person wants to become a werewolf, they need to

be blooded, or changed. It involved being bitten, usually when we’re in werewolf form. But I’ve heard it’s possible to turn someone by biting them while the wolf is in human form.”

“So werewolves were human once?”

Jax shook his head “No. Well, probably back at the beginning. But now, if two wolves mate, the child

will be a werewolf. If one parent is a wolf, one human, there’s a fifty-fifty chance the child will be a

werewolf.”

Noise at the kitchen door made Jax look up. Finn walked into the kitchen with Angela. “Finn, you

remember Nikki. Nikki, this is Finn, from this morning, and Angela, his mate. Things were a bit rushed

earlier.”

Nikki nodded to them and Finn grabbed two bottles of beer from the refrigerator. Finn was reserved,

not his usual talkative self, his eyes guarded.

“Something going on, Finn? Anything new happening?”

Finn glanced at Nikki and then back to Jax. Angela hung back, not speaking.

“Nikki knows, Finn. About us, about everything. It’s okay. She’s the one that thing tried to attack, in the alley. We just came from her old apartment. Whatever it is has been living there.”

Finn’s eyes went wide. “No shit. Fuck. Oh, sorry.” He tipped his beer in Nikki’s direction. She smiled,

shaking her head.

“It’s okay.” Nikki waved her hand. “I’ve heard worse…probably said worse.”

Finn pulled out a chair and sat down. Angela stood behind him, hands on his shoulders. Jax glanced at

Nikki, caught the look on her face. She was watching Angela and Finn, studying every movement between

them. She must be wondering what it was like, being the mate to a werewolf. It might be good for her to

talk to Angela sometime. But Finn interrupted his thoughts.

“So does this mean we can start the hunt for it there? At the apartment?”

“Probably. It seems the most logical place, the last known bolt hole its had. It’s been coming up the fire escape at the back, through a broken window. It sleeps in the closet in the bedroom. We might have

spooked it by coming back, but maybe not.”

“Does Bec know?”

“No. We just got back from there. I still haven’t tracked him down.”

“Got it. So we hold off…don’t go hunting for it tonight?” Finn took a swallow of beer. Angela’s grip

had tightened on Finn’s shoulder and he slid one hand up, covering hers.

“No, not yet. You can scout if you’d planned to, but no hunting it to ground. But we will need to move

soon. The apartment’s not going to be vacant much longer. If a mortal stumbles on that thing while it’s

there, it could be a disaster.”

Finn rose, sliding an arm around Angela’s waist. “Okay. Let me know when you want us ready. And I’ll

send the word out through the ranks. And to let Bec know…” The unspoken question hung in the air.

“Yeah. Bec. He’s my responsibility. I’ll find him.”

Finn and Angela left the room, Nikki’s eyes following them, watching as Finn jostled Angela through

the doorway, pulling her against him. Her clear laugh floated back to them in the kitchen before they

disappeared into the living room.

Nikki stifled a yawn behind her hand. “You must be exhausted. This has been rough day for you,

following a pretty rough night last night.”

“It’s…a lot to take in. You’re a werewolf, there’s a real life monster living in my closet that may want

me dead. I’m being evicted and my best friend is angry at me. Oh, and my boss won’t pay me. Yeah, rough

pretty much describes my life right now.” She gave him a rueful smile. “But I’ll survive because I have

you.”

“You sure do.” Jax chuckled. “You want to head upstairs?” He held out his hand. “I promise, no more

secrets.”

She took his hand and stood, letting him pull her off the chair. “Yeah, you’ve already told me you’re the big bad wolf. I’m not sure there’s much else you could tell me that would shock me now.”

He pulled her against him, kissing her forehead. She laid her head on his chest and they stood for a

minute, the sounds of the house surrounding them.

She drew a deep sigh, pulling away to look up at him, still in the circle of his arms. “Bed sounds like a good place to be.”

He led her quietly up the carpeted stairs and down the hall to his room, the sounds of the house fading

away as he closed the door. Nikki sat on his bed, kicking off her shoes.

“So, how many people actually live here?”

Jax pulled out the desk chair, toeing off his boots. “It’s usually between ten and fifteen guys and mates, give or take. With Bec…” Jax ran a hand over his face. “It’s been less, since Bec left. He took some

members with him, but some have come back.”

Nikki curled up against the headboard and patted the bed beside her. “Come sit.”

He rose, climbing up on the bed and he arranged the pillows behind them and then settled down next to

her, arm around her shoulders.

“This thing with Bec, it’s hard for you, isn’t it. Lori’s almost like a sister to me and when we fight, it tears me up inside. Must be worse when it’s family.”

“It is. He’s…I think he’s having a hard time with me being alpha male and him still being my little

brother. He wants me to be both, I guess.” Jax leaned his head against the wall, absently rubbing Nikki’s arm.

“Does he want you to treat him differently? Give him favors or cut him some slack because you’re in

charge?”

Jax frowned at the ceiling. “I don’t think so. I just can’t act like I did before, can’t go off half-cocked.

With this Arden thing, we’d have been in it together, shoulder to shoulder, doing what our father said but competing to see who’d do it better, like a game. But with me giving the orders…it’s not so easy for him to accept, I guess. He can’t do better than me…because I’m not playing the game anymore.”

Nikki was quiet for a minute. She reached for his hand, winding her fingers through his. “Jax, you’ve

never told me how your father died.”

Jax drew a deep breath. It still hurt to think about it and the mere thought of discussing it had his

stomach in knots. But this was Nikki, and she’d already shared so much of her life with him. He owed it to her to at least try.

“They were…my parents were…killed by a rival pack. It was a long time ago…although it seems like it

just happened. The pack, everyone except Bec, seems to have adjusted. But he took it the hardest.”

“How was it for you?” She squeezed his hand and he rubbed his fingers across the back of her hand.

“Hard. Very hard. I was close to my father…and mother. Everyone knew I’d be alpha one day, but it

happened so fast, so abruptly…and so brutally…no one was prepared.”

“How many rival packs are there?” The shock in her voice was evident. “Up till just yesterday…was it

yesterday? I had no idea your kind even existed and now there’s rival packs.”

“There aren’t that many, maybe only a handful now…there were more, but over the years we’ve

stopped being rivals and banded together…worked together. It was one of the things my father had really

started, cooperation between rivals and less fighting. There aren’t as many of us as there used to be and fighting just made it worse.”

“So where are all the other packs?”

“Scattered around. Mostly out here, in the suburbs…what used to be considered outside of the city.

There are a few in the inner city areas, our urban cousins. Some further out, in the countryside.”

“And you’re alpha because you’re the oldest?”

Jax nodded. “It’s passed down, through the family. Bec could challenge me, if he really wanted. But he

doesn’t really want that and I don’t…the pack wouldn’t either. Right now, it would only divide the pack.

Bec left, not long ago, with a few guys, to start his own pack. But most of them have returned. I get that he wants to be alpha male, but he’s not ready. Someday, maybe, but not right now.”

Nikki lifted her head, looking up at Jax. Her eyes were soft in the dim light. “You’re under a whole lot

of stress here. Why add me to the mix? Why now? I can’t be the easiest thing in the world to add to your

life.”

Jax ran his fingers beneath her chin, tilting her face to his. “You’re the only thing keeping me sane these days, Nikki. Really. Without you, here…I’m not sure I’d be able to hold it together.”